do people think TCD is snobby?

snorlax · 26-08-2004 6:53pm #1

just wondering because a few of our departments/lecturers are a bit snotty, but most are okay, especially in the newer faculties eg engineering ect

90% of students here aren't snobby, and are just normal college plebs.

then UCD is in dublin 4, so its bound to get about the same number as TCD.

StickyMcGinty · 26-08-2004 7:29pm

do people thing trinity is snobby??

ohhhhhhhhhhhh yes!

snorlax · 27-08-2004 6:52pm

well wer'e not all that bad. as i said we're fairly unsnobbish except for the odd few that give everyone a bad reputation. :mad:

i suppose that reputation might be something to do with tcd being of "english origin" or something, well the biggest student party in tcd is sein fein and iv met more americans and asians in tcd then people of english origin. In fact our church is the only one in ireland that is multidenominational, both catholic and protestant at the same time.

we also have more people from disadvantaged backrounds (under the TAP programme)and more mature students then any other college in ireland, so it could be said that it has the most diverse student population.

perphaps people view TCD as snobby because it's so hard to get into with the high points and maybe people resent that.

strawberry · 27-08-2004 7:10pm

Anyone who classifies people from a particular university as snobby need to have their heads checked. Anyone who cares what such people think is even worse. Fortunately they haven't started mass producing people yet so a small thing called individual personality still exists.

ApeXaviour · 29-08-2004 8:37pm

I go to TCD, I'm from Lucan (not exactly posh by any means). My friends in college mostly are from lowish income areas: Drimnagh, tallaght, cabra etc. I am highlighting this to show that there is a definite mix of people in the college. Actually to this day there is nobody I know from D4 there..
Even among the well-spoken I know (in my faculty at least) there are none that I would regard snobby. Geeky yes but never snobby

There is a stigma out there I agree. It did probably start because of its "royal" origins. One thing though, I have noticed a prevailing pattern. In any modern anecdotes I have heard concerning a snobby tcd student, the student is invariably a BESS student. This is not to say that all BESS students in tcd are snobs, that would be ridiculus. But there is certainly an evident eliteist culture in the faculty which may be the reason this stigma has perpetuated. Has anyone else noticed this?

I even have my own personal anecdote. I was introduced to some lads in the Pav (a bar in tcd). I was talking polite to these lads, we were a little inebriated as it was near the end of the night. I decided to try and get it out of polite small talk and attempted to relax into a funny anecdote. I was interrupted midsentance by one of the lads who laughed haughtely and asked me to repeat the word "what" again. When I didn't oblige he mimicked me repeatedly, exaggerating the lack of pronounciation of the t. Much to the joviality of his comrades. I was actually gobsmacked with disbelief.. Yes I have a semi-heavy dublin accent, but I'm proud of it and I believe it gives me a kind of rough charm. :cool:
Needless to tell you what faculty these blazer wearing, croquet playing a*se-bandits were from.

Saint · 29-08-2004 8:48pm

apexaviour wrote:

I go to TCD, I'm from Lucan (not exactly posh by any means). My friends in college mostly are from lowish income areas: Drimnagh, tallaght, cabra etc. I am highlighting this to show that there is a definite mix of people in the college. Actually to this day there is nobody I know from D4 there..
Even among the well-spoken I know (in my faculty at least) there are none that I would regard snobby. Geeky yes but never snobby

There is a stigma out there I agree. It did probably start because of its "royal" origins. One thing though, I have noticed a prevailing pattern. In any modern anecdotes I have heard concerning a snobby tcd student, the student is invariably a BESS student. This is not to say that all BESS students in tcd are snobs, that would be ridiculus. But there is certainly an evident eliteist culture in the faculty which may be the reason this stigma has perpetuated. Has anyone else noticed this?

I even have my own personal anecdote. I was introduced to some lads in the Pav (a bar in tcd). I was talking polite to these lads, we were a little inebriated as it was near the end of the night. I decided to try and get it out of polite small talk and attempted to relax into a funny anecdote. I was interrupted midsentance by one of the lads who laughed haughtely and asked me to repeat the word "what" again. When I didn't oblige he mimicked me repeatedly, exaggerating the lack of pronounciation of the t. Much to the joviality of his comrades. I was actually gobsmacked with disbelief.. Yes I have a semi-heavy dublin accent, but I'm proud of it and I believe it gives me a kind of rough charm. :cool:
Needless to tell you what faculty these blazer wearing, croquet playing a*se-bandits were from.

The Pav is a sports bar an tends to be packed full of that type of ass hole. Tbh the most snobby pricks I've met in there are the ones from poorer backgrounds. Their the ones that really think going to trinity means a damn. Tell me you smacked that gob****e, I've ran into loads like that, their in every faculty, lab partner with one for a year.

ApeXaviour · 29-08-2004 9:26pm

Saint wrote:

Tbh the most snobby pricks I've met in there are the ones from poorer backgrounds. Their the ones that really think going to trinity means a damn.

Really?! That's very different from what I've experienced. My mates are embarrassed to say they go to trinity when home, I must admit I am too. I've even told people I'm an apprentice mechanic before (I know a bit bout cars and I work part-time in a garage so I can bluff a bit). Yeah yeah I know I shouldn't do that, but in my area it's very difficult to develop a rapport with a person if you mention the words "trinity" or "physics".

What goes in conjunction with this (unless you have a double personality) is a feeling of inferiority in college..

Ah don't dis' the pav, its fookin great!

The atmosphere is deadly and we get on great with the staff. Only after a rugby/cricket match am I ever averse to going there..

Nah I didn't hit urman. I wasn't angry really at the time, just surprised. On reflection I should done my Rob de niro impression. Chin in chest, squinted eyes, raised eyebrows, arms out questioning. WHA' di you say? Are you talk-in to ME!? Then a shovelhook bodyshot

Saint · 29-08-2004 9:36pm

apexaviour wrote:

Really?! That's very different from what I've experienced. My mates are embarrassed to say they go to trinity when home, I must admit I am too. I've even told people I'm an apprentice mechanic before (I know a bit bout cars and I work part-time in a garage so I can bluff a bit). Yeah yeah I know I shouldn't do that, but in my area it's very difficult to develop a rapport with a person if you mention the words "trinity" or "physics".

What goes in conjunction with this (unless you have a double personality) is a feeling of inferiority in college..

Ah don't dis' the pav, its fookin great! The atmosphere is deadly and we get on great with the staff. Only after a rugby/cricket match am I ever averse to going there..

Nah I didn't hit urman. I wasn't angry really at the time, just surprised. On reflection I should done my Rob de niro impression. Chin in chest, squinted eyes, raised eyebrows, arms out questioning. WHA' di you say? Are you talk-in to ME!? Then a shovelhook bodyshot

I the same way, except I live it up for all it's worth. " Yah I go to Trinitae" a bit of self parody puts everyone at ease, and helps display some of the stereotypes. But yea I've met some really sound D4 guys, and some really stuff up their own arses D3 girls in trinity. It's weird. The PAv can be great craic but still if the blazer mob are it I take off.

Annasopra · 30-08-2004 5:59pm

do people think TCD is snobby?

Definitely not, I have loads of friends who go to Trinity and they are not snobby at all,

There is snobbery in both UCD and TCD but most people that I know who attend there are not snobby at all

Agent Smith · 31-08-2004 11:32pm

a teacher of mine who went to trinity gave me some sound addvice....

"To come out of trinity joseph, without being an arsehole, is to remeber where you came from, and to hang around with the northsiders and culchies."

sorry to any northsiders or country people, thats a direct quote

seanie04 · 01-09-2004 4:13pm

I'm a UCDer and heard that one year at the UCD/Trinity debate, a charming young man from Trinners came in and called us all a bunch of fenian b**tards.

I don't know what you'd call that, but it put me right off TCD

ApeXaviour · 01-09-2004 4:39pm

seanie04 wrote:

I'm a UCDer and heard that one year at the UCD/Trinity debate, a charming young man from Trinners came in and called us all a bunch of fenian b**tards.

I don't know what you'd call that, but it put me right off TCD

I'd call it BS.. It's urban legends like this that proliferate a bad reputation for everyday students.
First let me remind you that this college is in the very centre of DUBLIN. While historically it was a "royal" and protestant college. This is by no means the case today. Analogise it with germany, historically they were a nazi state, do you consider this the case anymore?

The gaelic sports are very big in the college, as are the irish language courses and basically the college much considers itself a part of IRISH history..

Nextly UCD is full of west-brits (more to do with it's location than anything else), why would they call you fenians?

ApeXaviour · 01-09-2004 4:45pm

seanie04 wrote:

I'm a UCDer and heard that one year at the UCD/Trinity debate, a charming young man from Trinners came in and called us all a bunch of fenian b**tards.

I don't know what you'd call that, but it put me right off TCD

I'd call it BS.. It's urban legends like this that proliferate a bad reputation for everyday students.
First let me remind you that this college is in the very centre of DUBLIN. While historically it was a "royal" and protestant college. This is by no means the case today. Analogise it with germany, historically they were a nazi state, do you consider this the case anymore?

The gaelic sports are very big in the college, as are the irish language courses and basically the college much considers itself a part of IRISH history..

Nextly UCD is full of west-brits (more to do with it's location than anything else), why would they call you fenians?

snorlax · 01-09-2004 6:13pm

i aggree with apexaviour, you can't just generalize a whole college just cos of one eejit, im sure theres plenty of eejits in UCD aswell.

im also sure ucd people know plenty of their friends who went to tcd who they wouldn't consider snobby and vise versa

also sein fein is our biggest party(just to remind you)!

Boston · 01-09-2004 7:25pm

agent smith wrote:

a teacher of mine who went to trinity gave me some sound addvice....

"To come out of trinity joseph, without being an arsehole, is to remeber where you came from, and to hang around with the northsiders and culchies."

sorry to any northsiders or country people, thats a direct quote

I take no offence to that. In fact it's pretty bang on, when I think about who I hang around with.

Pugwash · 01-09-2004 9:00pm

As a soon to be BESS student this whole trinity/BESS snobbery issue is worrying me somewhat :eek:

I wouldnt consider myself snobby in the least and know the likelyhood of being surrounded by ross o carrol-kelly types is minimal, but still i have a bit of a nagging feeling about the BESS faculty.

I have talked to a couple of people doing BESS and reports have ranged from "everyone's normal, don't believe the slander..." to..... " they're not snobby or shallow at all, all they care about is how your hair looks" :rolleyes:

The exact same has been said of Commerce in UCD.

The main thing to remember is that there has been both legitimate and shallow/silly rivelry between the two colleges since day dot, so mud is inevitably slung.

As well as that, both faculties are very sizable, ranging between 200 and 300 each year, so many demographs and cross-sections are represented. Therefore, there is just as much chance of a "LOTS-A-MONEY" type getting in as a "Culchie" or whatever. Unfortunately, there are ignorant people in the world and this transcends wealth, class and schooling.

A mix of hear-say and the actions of certain eejits has led to this snobby vacade being projected upon Trinity, BESS and the Quinn school, who , My friend in commerce claim are envied for their shiny new building and laptops.

Maybe the issue of party X or person Y being snobby isnt really the problem at all. Maybe its the swiftness of irish people to brand others as snobby or too big for their boots, etc.

StickyMcGinty · 02-09-2004 12:34am

look, from my experience, 3 of my good mates went in to trinity engineering last year, and this year they are so far up their own arses they're nearly inside out!

tritiy has a reputation as snobby for a reason, mainly because its formerly a "protestant upper class college". the tide is changing, but slowly! a college that has a cricket poitch on campus, and a gaa pitch miles away is always going to be snobby!

Boston · 02-09-2004 9:03am

VinnyL wrote:

look, from my experience, 3 of my good mates went in to trinity engineering last year, and this year they are so far up their own arses they're nearly inside out!

I start eng last year, I most likely know hte lads your talking about. People grow apart when they go to college from the friends they had, could you be reading this as them being up there own arse.

StickyMcGinty · 02-09-2004 3:33pm

Boston wrote:

I start eng last year, I most likely know hte lads your talking about. People grow apart when they go to college from the friends they had, could you be reading this as them being up there own arse.

boston, seriously, no.

bunch of ignorand b*stards now so they are! pity really, cause they were well sound! they wouldnt even salute you in the street now!

reputations are there for a reason. would you trust a person from the towers in ballymun first off?

i know people from rinners that are really sound, but there is an equal amount of the "bottle of heiny and pack a marlboro lights" crew!

Boston · 02-09-2004 3:38pm

VinnyL wrote:

boston, seriously, no.

bunch of ignorand b*stards now so they are! pity really, cause they were well sound! they wouldnt even salute you in the street now!

reputations are there for a reason. would you trust a person from the towers in ballymun first off?

i know people from rinners that are really sound, but there is an equal amount of the "bottle of heiny and pack a marlboro lights" crew!

Give us afew first names and i'll know. Cause there are assholes in the year.

Imposter · 02-09-2004 3:50pm

I spent 6 years in trinity and I would have to say that the BESS stereotype is very accurate. There might be a handful out of the couple of hundred that don't fit the stereotype but I never managed to meet them (or maybe they didn't want anyone to know what course they were in!).

The trinity stereotype is largely true of the Rugby, Cricket, Phil, Hist Lawsoc crowds but that is far from a majority of the people in the college. These groups do however tend to be the loudest. Most of the people there, are not the stereotype that is banded about. Roight

ixoy · 02-09-2004 3:52pm

Never found a snobby attitude in Trinity. But then I did Computer Science and we're all a bunch of outcast freaks there who'd never think to get above ourselves...

Actually, I never encountered snobbery much in certain areas of Trinity. You did some pretentious airs put on by idle Arts students with nothing better to do than hang on the ramp to the Arts block. The only course with any stigma attached to it was... yup - BESS. I know two people who did it and eh... they didn't like the class they were in because it was full of D4 snobs (e.g. he told me that someone didn't do their assignment because their horse was sick). I don't know why BESS collects them except maybe the kids are set to inherit Papa and Mama's business and need some business skills. But maybe it's changed since we left back in the misty days of '01.

Pugwash · 02-09-2004 7:44pm

By God I hope ye're wrong about BESS! Four years in such a class isn't the nicest thing to look forward to :eek:

It'd be nice to hear from more BESS students and allumni, surely it can't REALLY be wall to wall anti-plebs!

StickyMcGinty · 03-09-2004 12:47am

Boston wrote:

Give us afew first names and i'll know. Cause there are assholes in the year.

names? no chance man!

they're from meath though!

RuggieBear · 03-09-2004 1:10am

I did my undergrad in Trinity and now i'm doing my PhD there. I spent my first two years in Geography/Sociology surrounded by BESS students in the Ed Burke (largest lecture hall). There are a lot harmless Ross O'Carroll Kelly types who are a wee bit pretentious but most people were grand.

Best thing about the BESS types was that all the girls were done up to the nines....it was like going on a night out...lots of eye candy to make time pass quicker!!! :eek:

my last two years were spent in Geography with the soundest bunch of people you would ever meet....

Was part of a mega league football team drawn with all my mates. mainly geography and computer science guys but there were one or two BESS-heads there too....Chocolate chimney sweepers if anyone played in the league around 1998-2000.

Anyway....
only time i act snobby is when some people have a go at me for going to TCD and then i just play up the steroetype and if they happen to go to UCD call them Oicks and that sort of BS

ApeXaviour · 03-09-2004 1:50am

pekelly wrote:

Best thing about the BESS types was that all the girls were done up to the nines....it was like going on a night out...lots of eye candy to make time pass quicker!!!

Dinna fash yoursel' too much there Pugwash, at least the above is very true too. A mate of mine is going out with a BESS bird (they were with eachother way before she turned though

. And as much as I dislike talking to her mates when she brings them to the pub, they are ALL drool material for the night... *phew is gettin hot in here?... yikes..

Just remember to follow the rules someone mentioned above: remember where you come from and hang around with northsiders and culchies (areas like tallaght, ballyfermot, blanch, clondalkin.. basically west Dublin are kewl too).
Another thing I'd like to add to that is to keep your mates from home to the extent of possibility.

Pugwash · 03-09-2004 3:40am

Tis true, the girls are reputed to be rather nice. Having a stable full of fine looking fillies is all well and good but the attraction is completely void the minute they open their mouths, as far as I can tell.

At the end of the day, these are generalisations and all I can do is hope that they are either unfounded or there's a miraculous mix of well grounded people this year.

Freshers week is still a month away, the anticipation is killing me!

Chick · 05-09-2004 3:03pm

I am starting nursing in Trinity in October,anyone have any idea if theres any stereotype attachted to that course so i can be warned lol?
Im dying for frshers weeks as well!! some1 told me they had a bouncing castle and candyfloss for last year, how cool is that!!

desertcircus · 05-09-2004 3:26pm

I have no doubt that the story of a TCD student calling UCD students "fenian bastards" at a Colours debate is absolutely true. However, taking it seriously would be foolish in the extreme. A friend of mine was almost hit by a full beer can thrown from the top of Theatre M (or whatever the big one is), and the entire thing was abandoned a few years ago when someone threw a pint glass. The fact is, the Colours is designed to be as hostile and stereotypical as possible, and reading something into a comment about fenian bastards is as ill-advised as reading something into being called a West Brit c*nt when you're delivering a speech in Irish (it's happened!). Behaviour on both sides is unpleasant, but it has to be remembered that each year the L&H pays a fortune to clean the place of all the **** that's been thrown, and it's not the TCD students wh're throwing it.

On the question of BESS stereotypes and the Phil/Hist reputation, I can tell you that about 60% of BESS students are like that, but I've never encountered actual snobbery. I have no doubt that it exists somewhere, but I've never been faced with it in my three years in BESS. And the Phil/Hist thing - that's one of the greatest myths going. There is a love of the trappings of tradition in the societies (the adherence to a set way of doing things, the wearing of tuxes at every possible opportunity), but the people in both societies are usually absolutely lovely. There is the obligatory share of Anville girls/Gonzaga boys, but it's offset by Germans, Taiwanese, Dutch, Canadian, and God knows how many other nationalities. I know there's a reputation for insularity, but it's no worse than any other society on campus.

AngelofFire · 05-09-2004 11:25pm

Nah i know a lot of people in trinity who are intelligent tolerant people, snobbish people tend to lack either intelligence,confidence or perspective. snobbish people come from every uni campus, it is not inherint of TCD students. ive gotten a bit of stick from a few people on my own campus UCD becuase of my place of residence.

Im a protestant who goes to UCD.
I dont accept the argument that protestant=unionist catholic=nationalist. i would consider myself to be an irish republican. The first person to develop the idea of partition with Britain was an irish protestant who went to trinity called Jonathan swift, he called on his fellow protestant irish people to burn everything british but her coal. Unionism/westbritonism and nationalism have followers from both relgions.

scoby · 13-09-2004 7:29am

while sitting in USIT bar a few years ago with my college mates
a group of Trinity students came in collecting for charity.
We handed over our spare change, everyone was in good spirits
and we got to talking for a moment. They asked if we were in Trinity
"Nope. D.I.T." we replied
"Oh Gawwd! they're the crowd we 're collecting for!"
At which point they walked out laughing. :mad:

I have met some really nice people who've gone to trinity esp CS types.
There were certainly a few assholes in DIT as well...

do people think TCD is snobby?

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